A 48-minute game

MAURICE — There was little doubt who would get the ball for the Kaplan High football team with less than half a minute remaining and the Pirates sitting on the North Vermilion 1-yard line, trailing 14-12.
Fullback Jed Devoltz had already carried the ball 30 times in the game for more than 200 yards when the Pirates stepped to the line of scrimmage with 14 seconds showing on the clock.
Sure enough, quarterback Sabe David turned to his right after taking the snap and buried the ball in his big fullback’s stomach. The blockers opened up enough of a hole off right tackle for Devoltz to bull his way upright into the end zone for the winning points in an 18-14 Kaplan victory.
Devoltz finished the night with 231 yards and two touchdowns on 31 carries, drawing comparisons from Kaplan assistant coach Craig Brodie to Miami Dolphins Hall of Fame fullback Larry Csonka, who was known for his aggressive running style and for taking on defenders rather than avoiding them.
“Oh, I wanted it, I wanted it bad,” Devoltz said of his desire to get the ball with the game on the line. “Trying to finish the game.”
“It was awesome,” Kaplan head coach Cory Brodie said of Devoltz’s efforts. “What people are going to forget about is he played D-line for most of the game, too. He told me at the beginning of the week, ‘coach, I want the ball. It’s my senior year. I want to do this.’”
Devoltz admitted he was tired by that point in the game, but still expected to get the ball.
“Yeah, but I could keep going,” he said. “If the team needs me, I could keep going.
“Everyone was hyped (after the TD). We knew we won the game right there.”
Brodie said the Patriots took away Kaplan’s outside run, so they decided to give the ball to Devoltz as much as possible.
“Credit to them,” Brodie said. “I tell people all the time, Marc Broussard’s a great defensive coach (for North Vermilion). They watched us run speed sweep and outside run against Crowley (in the jamboree), and they took it away from us, so we said, we’re going to feed our bull. When he got tired, Wyatt Hebert stepped in there.
“I’m just proud of our guys for not giving up when they took away what we wanted to do. Great game plan by them. But players win games, and our guys won the game for us tonight.”
“Their bread and butter is the buck sweep,” first-year North Vermilion coach Joe Heintz said. “We knew that coming into the game. Their answer was to go inside with No. 11 (Devoltz), and he’s a load. He’s a good player. He’s physical. I thought we just didn’t have a whole lot of answers to him just because of his size and physicality. But our kid played hard, and we played for 48 minutes. I’m proud of our kids.”
Getting the win to start the season was huge, Devoltz said. The Pirates suffered a 1-point loss to North Vermilion to open the 2022 season and a 1-point loss to Abbeville at the end of the year that kept them out of the playoffs. Devoltz said Kaplan is looking to avenge its six losses from last season.
“Very important,” he said. “The revenge tour — that’s what we’ve been saying all offseason. Kaplan’s coming.”
Corey Brodie agreed it was a big win for his squad.
“It’s huge,” Brodie said, adding it’s good to be on the winning side of a close game. “It’s a different vibe. When we got the ball back with five minutes, it wasn’t about if we were going to score, it was when we were going to score.”
For Heintz, the loss was a tough one.
“I’m super proud of our effort,” Heintz said. “We knew coming into the ballgame it was going to be a 48-minute game and a four-down game on every possession, and that’s what it turned out to be.
“This one hurts. The kids are hurting. But it’s supposed to hurt. If it means something, it’s supposed to hurt.”
Kaplan outrushed North Vermilion 295 yards to 134 on the night, and outgained the Patriots 307-197 overall.
But with 11:10 remaining in the game, the Pirates trailed 14-12 thanks to a 63-yard touchdown pass from Logan Thompson to Norris Benoit on the game’s second play from scrimmage and a 35-yard TD run by Heath Aubrey with 8:51 to go in the first half.
Brodie credited the Kaplan defense for keeping the Pirates in the game.
“I’ve got the best defensive coach, Jared Duhon,” Brodie said. “He coaches the offensive line in the wing-T. He’s been our defensive coordinator. We were losing at halftime but we only gave up three first downs. Just being able to stop them was huge. It’s a blessing to have a guy on the staff that has that head-coach potential, that can do just about anything that I ask him to do. He’s changed his role three times in three years, and he’s done it really well. All credit not only to Jared but to all my assistant coaches.”
Bradyn Bearb got Kaplan on the scoreboard with a two-yard TD run with one second remaining in the first period, and Devoltz scored on a one-yard run with 3:17 to go in the half. But North Vermilion led thanks to a pair of Jacob Lattier point-after kicks. Kaplan missed its PAT kick on the first touchdown and couldn’t get the ball in on a 2-point try after the second TD.
Neither team could put up points in the second half, but North Vermilion took over at its 11 with 11:10 to go in the game and marched all the way past midfield before the drive stalled, thanks in part to a holding penalty.
Thompson’s punt attempt from the 40 rolled into the end zone, giving Kaplan one final possession with 4:15 remaining, and Devoltz promptly ripped off a 55-yard run, his longest of the night, on the first snap from there.
Devoltz later converted a fourth-and-three situation from the 18, just getting enough yards to keep possession. Two runs got the ball to the 4 with 22 seconds remaining, and Devoltz carried to the 1 on first and goal. After a time out, the Pirates handed the ball to Devoltz again, and he plowed into the end zone to put Kaplan ahead 18-14.
North Vermilion got the ball to the 30 on a lateral on the kick return, but could only get a 15-yard pass completion on the final play of the game.
Kaplan plays host to Berwick on Thursday.
North Vermilion travels to Erath on Friday.
“The biggest thing now is we need it to hurt for the next two days, but when we come back Monday morning we need to just flush it and move on because we’ve got another big game next Friday against a parish rival Erath,” Heintz said. “They’re a good team. I know they lost last night. They’re like us. They’re looking for their first win next week.”